Bob48

Quest , Bob and jo , may see you Saturday morning , , our dear little CG4 has been sold on by Richardsons , so a new boat for us to try out , sorry it's been so long , setting up a business has been tough going . toodle-pip for now

question, what amount of truth is there that Herbie woods at potter are now charging £10 to stay over night in the boat yard ?

bad news i'm afraid, our I.M. Pennant won't be with us, however being as " I.M." are the initials of " The Iceni Meadery ", we will have a few bottles of our fabulous 17% abv mead aboard with us .

we'll be out on Crown Gem 4 , and may do a cruise past and wave , who knows we may even moor up and say " Hello " to you all complete with our new I.M. pennant flying. that'll probably be Sunday. :)

thankyou more beer it is then .

hi John, is Nyx still able to pass under the bridge ?

sorry , we have been rather busy , is there room for us at Salhouse , Bob & Jo/Crown Gem 4 /Sunday. ?

she is very comfy , galley is very usable , the sliding roof is heavy though , the sun roof is a bit stiff , but other than that she is a good boat and her engine even though she has a hydraulic drive is very quite and economical ( £150 deposit £103 returned , and we went all over the place), the minor issues I had with her will no doubt be put right long before you get aboard .

to start , some very sad news . the Rising sun at coltishall is not as once it was , now on to some more interesting stuff . We hired our boat Majestic gem 2 from Richardsons and as normal everything was fine and dandy , we left the boatyard at about 2pm on the 22nd of September with high hopes of a fine week away , we we're not disappointed . the sun shone and shone. we headed for our first mooring , this time it was St BEnets abbey moorings , we had a grand evening on our boat , the following day we headed to Womack water , another fine clear day we saw a barn owl and managed to get a rather shaky video of him , we ate out at the Kings Arms in ludham , great food , friendly staff ,and a warm welcome . so thoroughly stuffed , we headed back to the boat .sunday morning and yet another fine warm day , we headed off to Salhouse broad , where the good lady cooked a fabulous sunday lunch of pork loin wrapped in stuffing and bacon with veg and mashed potatoes. one of our crew left us this evening , so that left 4 of us . Monday and off to Wroxham for passage to Coltishall , moored up here over night at Hoveton St John moorings , topped up on provisions from Roys , and then had a pint .Tuesday morning and things became incredible firstlyour other friends got caught in traffic on the A14 , so we were held up for an hour and a half , and our lad lost a pike , 3 times , he was not happy at all . our friends arrived just before mid day and we headed for Coltishall. it was here that the incredible happened , for some time I had been telling everybody about how wonderful the rising sun was and that its' fish and chips could not be beaten , sadly this is no longer the case we were rather disappointed , the chips were quite obviously of the frozen kind and the fish was quite boney , the once fabulous onion rings were over cooked and dripping with oil that had not been changed for some while , a very sad day indeed . Wednesday and we were off back to Wroxham where we saw out first , and second otters' , we took a whole bunch of photos and managed some video footage as well . topped up on provisions at Roys and after calling the pilot for passage , we headed off to Ranworth , we arrived just before 3pm to a full ( surprisingly ) staithe , so I threw caution to the wind and went down to see if there were any moorings anyway , , fortunately as we swung about to leave a gentleman on another boat was just leaving so ,with careful throttle control we squeezed ourselves onto the mooring .( second time this year ) . we ate at the Maltsters this evening and we were not disappointed at all there was steak and kidney puddings and veg , a hunters chicken dish , a lasagne that looked incredible , and a superb chicken and bacon salad , all good portions and very reasonably priced , still one of the top venues for food on the broads . Thursday dawned grey and a little damp ,but not to worry it fitted our " last day " mood very well, we left Ranworth about 2 pm for the slow cruise back to Richardsons boat yard ,once moored up I had a glass of wine and reflected on the wonderful week that had been when , from the corner of my eye I saw a Fortune house Chinese takeaway menu , we finished our week with a feast that could have easily fed 10 , that was two meals for two and cost £40. all in al a great time was had by all , and so our thoughts now turn to May and our next trip aboard the fine little ship Crown Gem 4 also from Richardsons . if you have been thanks for reading , stay safe . Bob

i shall do that, we'll have our poster in the front portside window

we may see you on the rivers , we are on majestic gem 2 :)

grand news , congratulations to you both

there was a post earlier re the rising sun at coltishall being closed ,i have spoken to a charming young lady this evening at the afore mentioned hostelry and can confirm that it is not closed at all, which i must say has pleased me no end, as we are looking forward to our fish and chips at the end of the month.

we only manage the second one as we hijack our friends to come along for the experience, that way we can keep the costs down.

cracking video John thoroughly enjoyable , it makes me think about doing a boat review myself . keep up the good work . stay safe .

it's a warm welcome from us too

may well see you then

addendum i must apologise to Broadsword we saw you twice on OBY it was good to see you and your lady out and about

Hello everybody here is the full report , less the bit about Potter Heigham . the holiday started in the usual fashion , wandering around the house first thing in the morning , making sure we had everything we needed for our week away , followed by a short trip in a cab to our local railway station and then the bus trip to Stalham , we boarded our fine vessel Crown gem 4 around 2.30 pm, in a light drizzle , which we had expected . tea was the first order of business , then cast off and onward to our first stop , Ludham bridge , it is here that we made our first contact with john aka Maurice Mynar , and his friend Bernie from the sailing vessel Midi , and Megan his Dog. we exchanged pleasantries , before heading for Salhouse and the NBN meet , on our way up the River Bure , the good lady took over the helm and i took control of the camera so that she could show those who needed to be shown that yes, she can drive a boat . we approached Salhouse Broad around 6.30 pm , to be met by Hockham Admiral , Vaughan and his good lady , Timbo from RT and his good lady and the two Boys , we also met Grendel , and Charlie from Bound2please, among others . we had a glass of wine in the company of the Admiral and Vaughan and his wife , and very nice it was too . we then headed by foot to the Fur and feather at Wood bastwick for our much needed evening meal , we were both very hungry as we had been on the go since before 8am . we had a fine evening in Salhouse , and the following morning we bid farewell to our new found friends and set off for Wroxham for passage through the bridge to Coltishall . a brief stop in Wroxham to top up on a few provisions from Roy's, and then we headed to our next destination the Rising Sun . we met some more people here Mike and his wife , who insisted on buying us beer for helping him moor his boat , although there was no need , but he insisted .we had a short squally shower , then had another drink and headed for our needed bed . Sunday morning broke bright and very warm , we decided we'd head for Ranworth , and did we some silly things on the way first a hire boat with out the pilot , , Oops , i wouldn't have wanted to be in their shoes on return to the boat yard .then the rather inebriated , party of friends in two day boats playing " Dodgems " bumping into each other as they sped past us near Salhouse spit , one either side of us , i did mention to the young man that passing on the inside was rather dangerous only to be met with a tirade of abuse, you just can't tell some people . we got to Ranworth and decided the best way was to go for a pint and a look at the menu , on arriving we found a group of fabulously attired Morrismen doing there dancing so we decided it'd be rude of us to leave , and had another pint instead .after this, we were on our way back to our boat and came across a gentleman with a beautiful red E-type jag, which he graciously allowed me to sit in , getting in and out was far from graceful . Monday and another beautiful day dawned and we headed for Potter Heigham , i have all ready told you this tale so won't go over it again.after the debacle at Potter we headed for more familiar water in the form of Womack Staithe , and what a fabulous evening we had, we decided we'd try the Kings Arms in Ludham village for our evening meal , and wow , what a meal we had , the good lady had Steamed salmon on parmentier potatoes served with steamed broccoli and asparagus this hollandaise sauce with a basamic drizzle , while i had a 16 oz sirloin with a bucket of chips, home made coleslaw, mushrooms ,onion rings and half a grilled tomato , it was absolutely spectacular and worth every penny we'd spent on it. Tuesday, i now look like a lobster as does the good lady, another scorcher of a day dawned and we decided that a short hop to fleet dyke was in order as we wanted to go for a wander around the Fairhaven gardens , took some fabulous photos , it was well worth the visit, we ate on the boat this evening , a salad with chicken cooked in green pesto with onions and grapes and mascarpone cheese, with the inevitable crusty bread for dunking in the sauce , met some more people here firstly there was Mike from Sunderland on his last few days of a three week break , he looked a bit like capt birdseye , a little later we met John and LIndzi who were also on the last few days of their break , we stood and nattered to them for a few minutes , before heading back to the boat avoiding the nasty bitey things that swarm around marshland .wednesday and we headed for Ludham bridge , well and truly roasted today , we just sat and watched the world go by before heading to the Dog Inn , for ham egg and chips , it was here we saw a barn owl flying low across the meadows , then just as we left this same bird shot over a hedge that we were walking past and nearly frightened us both to death. thursday and our last full day afloat , we headed away from Ludham looking very well done and a little sore , to be honest , and headed for How Hill as we wanted a look around again we were not disappointed, the Rhododendrons were magnificent , we even saw a swallow tail butterfly , although sadly i wasn't quick enough to get a photo. our day complete we headed with sad faces back to Richardsons at the end of a fantastic week for our traditional chinese take-away and a bottle of wine , we then spent the evening reminiscing about our week afloat and what a wonderful time we had had. we met some fantastic people some rather eccentric people lots of smiling people and some who looked a little nervous . but we had a great time , we are now looking forward to September so that we can come home again to the Norfolk broads . if you have been, thanks for reading the tale of our journey , it was lovely to meet some of you , stay safe . until the next time we meet . Bob & Jo the good ship Crown Gem 4

the rest of our holiday wasn't mired by the goings on at Potter ,but as i said we have now been there and we won't be going back. to be fair it isn't the place itself , i'm sure the village is a wonderful place and very peaceful,just don't like the idea of causing my dear wife problems .

the rest of this holiday report will be posted shortly , sorry for any delay

right then as so many of you have asked i shall regale you with the terrible tale of Potter heigham and the quiet moorings , the fair ship Crown Gem 4 set sail for Potter on the morning of Monday 22nd of May with high hopes , we passed Broads01 at the top of Womack water and waves were exchanged , the journey was going well, and we had beautiful weather. as we approached Potter Heigham we saw the caution sign reminding everybody of the Bridge of despair, but as we were not planning on going through the portal to Hickling and beyond we , paid it no mind. we had decided our best way was to moor at the quiet moorings a way from the bridge , this is where things really started to take a turn for the worse , we approached the mooring into the current ( not a raisin or sultana was to be seen ), as instructed 45 degrees into the bank then swing the stern in , right ? WRONG . now i would consider myself a capable helmsman as i swung my helm over to bring the stern in i almost lost the mooring all together, my dear lady, had managed to get ashore only to find the the mooring posts , if thats what you can all them were only 6 inches tall if that weren't bad enough there are only three posts along that stretch of mooring. we did manage to get moored and went off to find breakfast after spending in excess of £15 on something less than breakfast . and a pot of tea for two , we decided to head back to our boat ,we saw Keith and Carole on Silver cloud and exchanged pleasantries then we pressed on, this is where s*** got real , now our little ship is 27 ft long by 9ft wide she sits proudly at about 3Ft to the free board , and about 3Ft 8in from the bow to the key head , the problems started after we got back to our little ship and we stood wondering as the fear mounted , how are we to cast off safely without leaving the good lady behind , as the good lady had released the bow line the bow started to swing wildly into the sultana, so i got off the boat and helped her to retie our little ship. we then stood there for some minutes considering how we were going to get away from this awful place , Saved by a gentleman whos' name i did not get he cast off for us . the morale of this tale is simple , if you don't need to go to Potter don't go' there is nothing worth visiting for , unless the idea of spending loads of money on a breakfast that was more of an excuse than a meal , or if you like spending your time in a shop that was laid out by a group of three year olds is you thing. also the quiet moorings need to be looked at particularly the mooring posts. now i know there are some people that rave about this place but i would suggest to any first timers avoid this place like the black death or anthrax or rabies , am i getting my point across yet .potter heigham thanks for the experience i shall not becoming back.

yes i did it was good to see you , but i really do wish i hadn't gone to Potter, it turned into a nightmare . i shall explain more in the report .

it has been a day of travelling , so the report on our holiday will be made tomorrow , maybe